The present invention relates generally to educational methods at the classroom and individual level, as well as systems for implementing such methods. More particularly, the present invention relates to an educational method which combines audio-visual and computer technology to shift the teacher""s role away from mass pupil instruction and paperwork and back to the more traditional role of helping each individual student with his or her unique educational difficulties. Of particular significance in this application are methods and apparatus directed to teach speech/language skills to students.
Classroom teaching methods have changed very little since the early days of our country. The bedrock of education remains the teacher or professor lecturing to groups of students, commonly in conjunction with a text. Homework is assigned to reinforce the lessons learned in class and tests are administered to measure students"" aptitude and retention of the material. At the early levels of education, the setting for this instruction has and continues to be the schoolroom, public or private, where a teacher is responsible for a group of, for example, fifteen to forty students.
The conventional classroom method of teaching a subject typically involves a lesson plan which includes a plurality of lectures each having an associated written homework assignment for the student to reinforce the lecture. The teacher collects and evaluates the homework and occasionally gives tests to measure the students"" retention of the material. The teacher is also required to perform a multitude of other subsidiary tasks, such as report card generation and parent-teacher conferences, to keep the community satisfied with both the students"" and the teacher""s performance. Thus under the conventional classroom scenario, teachers must split their time to assume the roles of administrator and public relation officer, as well their supposedly primary role of teacher.
Educators have long recognized that while the classroom scenario provides economies of scale, one drawback is that students of different ages and aptitudes learn at differing rates and with the need for varying amounts of individual attention. This recognition led to the availability of private tutoring, for those who could afford such, provides more flexibility to meet an individual student""s needs. On the other hand, private tutoring has also been criticized since it does not provide the student with the opportunity to develop social skills which is inherent in the classroom setting.
Although this traditional method of education has changed little over the years, the amount of information which students need to assimilate to be considered well educated continues to increase geometrically. This fact is graphically illustrated by the technological wonders which surround us such as microcomputers, DNA mapping, videophones, the Internet, etc. The increase in information puts a correspondingly greater burden on teachers to try to cram more learning into the same amount of time, which leads to an associated increase in the amount of paperwork to be handled. Moreover, as fiscal resources grow more and more scarce, teachers have been required to handle even larger groups of students resulting in even less individual attention.
Although these problems are rapidly becoming more acute, they have been acknowledged by educators for many years. Many countries have reacted by adding more days to the school year or sending children to school at an earlier age so that students have more time to acquire the additional knowledge necessary. This solution, however, will only provide short term relief since there is only a finite amount of additional learning time which can be reasonably added to students"" schedules, while our knowledge base will always continue to expand. Additionally, increasing the school year further aggravates the fiscal problem of education by requiring even greater economic resources and putting greater pressure on teachers.
Educators have also experimented with alternate teaching methods, such as self-study programs and videotaped lectures, to both more efficiently use teachers"" time and to provide an element of individuality to a student""s study program. Although these types of methods are somewhat successful at higher levels of education, they are generally ineffective at lower levels where younger students lack the discipline to teach themselves.
Another approach has been outlined in the afore-incorporated by reference patents to John Lee et al. Therein, interactive educational methods and systems are described which provide a flexible alternative to the conventional classroom educational method. These educational methods integrate technology and leaning in a manner which is specifically designed to make learning more effective for both students and teacher. For example, the computer-aided techniques describe therein relieve the teacher of many of the non-teaching burdens discussed above, while also giving the student the opportunity to learn at his or her own pace. These systems also provide an interactive, audio-visual system which will encourage each student to learn at his or her own individual pace and using teaching techniques that are adapted to promote learning according to each individual""s strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, each student is provided with instructional reinforcement in the form of questions and his or her performance will be monitored by the system. If a student has difficulty with a particular area, the system will alert the teacher who can then provide additional help.
Another area of teaching in which it would be desirable to provide creative, computer-aided solutions is handwriting education. This type of education focuses on teaching students how to correctly write letter, words and sentences. Recent technological advances in the area of digital handwriting analysis have provided the building blocks upon which computer-aided educational techniques can advance into the realm of handwriting education. Digitizing tablets, per se, exist for many functions, e.g., to capture a person""s signature as part of a financial transaction involving the use of a credit card.
An example of a computerized method and apparatus for teaching handwriting which uses this type of technology is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,602, the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference. Therein, a computerized system prompts a student to use a digitizing pen to write a character on a digitizing surface. The digitizing surface may include a thin LCD display on top of the digitizing tablet itself in order to provide visual feedback to the student of his or her handwriting without the need for the student to look up to another display. The digitizing tablet captures various parameters associated with the student""s handwriting on the digitizing surface, e.g., pen tilt angle, (x,y) coordinates of the pen tip, pen tip height and timing for each pixel. These captured values are then used to analyze the student""s handwriting and provide feedback with respect thereto.
While the ""602 patent addresses certain aspects of computerized handwriting analysis for education purposes, it still represents only an initial effort. The entirety of the process should be fun and functional. The digitizing table used in the ""602 patent is not specifically designed for handwriting analysis in the classroom and appears to be the same as that used to capture a digital signature for a credit card purchase. The present invention addresses this challenge and provides methods and systems for interactive, computer-aided handwriting education.
A digitizing tablet for use in handwriting analysis is described. The tablet includes a digitizing layer for translating pressure from a stylus into digital information, a display layer for providing visible output that corresponds to a student""s use of the stylus on the tablet, and an overlay layer for protecting the display layer and providing an electro-mechanical mechanism for erasing the displayed contents.